"They also live / Who swerve and vanish in the river."--Archibald MacLeish

Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Learning about life from literature

At the O. Henry prize reading at Kepler's last night, an audience member mentioned that Lorrie Moore recently said she'd learned more about life from reading literature than from life itself. Or something like that. Anyway the writers (Andrew Altschul, Jan Ellison, and Susan Straight) generally expressed surprise at that comment. Good writing comes from living life, they said; although they also suggested that reading teaches you how to give shape and power to your stories. It's an easy notion to dismiss (especially out of context)--here's another bookworm who's never gone out and embraced real life. But I wonder if the emphasis should be on the nature of learning. Without literature we might not have the tools to reflect well on our experiences. Why is it that Freud turned to Oedipus, not to mention the Sandman, to explain key psychoanalytic concepts?

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About Me

I'm a writer, editor, and recovering academic. My first novel, Bigfoot and the Baby, was published by Bona Fide Books in June 2014. You can also read my work in Alaska Quarterly Review, Crazyhorse, Flavorwire, Slush Pile, The Millions, The Rumpus.net, Tin House, and elsewhere. Represented by Cynthia Zigmund.

Borrowed Fire

Borrowed Fire is a (now intermittent) series in which I read classic works of literature and try to point out what contemporary writers can learn from their craft. All BF texts are posted on Project Gutenberg--so you can follow along, even if you haven't read the book!